My first playoff match in the XTBBF was last Wednesday, at Dueling Grounds as usual. The match was against the last placed team to manage to get into the playoffs. I squeezed out a very narrow victory, scoring in turn 8 of the first half and second half nothing worked for either team. Continuing undefeated and boosting my win percentage to 88%! An added bonus was rolling a double for my unskilled mummy giving me a ST5 player with the "Block" skill.

Next up is the semi-final match, scheduled for Wednesday this week, our league "reporter" Dave has begun writing up previews for the semi-final matchups. You can find the press release for my matchup here. I should have a huge amount of inducement cash (I've got a discussion going on at talkfantasyfootball forums regarding my best choices) and will likely take a couple star players if money allows over cards or wizards.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

First painting point of 2011! At least I managed it in January, I started on my terminator librarian conversion for my Novamarines, but kinda stalled out. To go along with the Raptors paint method, I used only washes on his armour. Unfortunately I think I did one layer too many, I started on a grey undercoat and did 5 coats (black/green/black/black/black) - I think he looked better at 4 coats. As with my counts as Shrike, I didn't do any special highlights. I seriously think when I have a decent army of this chapter they will look great for the amount of time put in.

In this pic you can see the chapter icon decal I used on his left shoulderpad. For his helmet I just painted on a thin layer of dheneb stone foundation paint before using various splotches of washes. Again I think I went a little far - it looked a little better before the last couple strokes. Still I'm not overly disappointed, he still looks pretty bad-ass and I'm sure will be a welcome addition to an assault heavy chapter.

A little bit of scenery hedge and I'm pretty much done. I've just noticed now though that Shrike has the tubes on the back of his jump pack in bronze, and wondering if I should do the same for this character, it might break up the large black area - what do you think?

Here's what I've been up to over the past couple weeks. Early in the year I called about booking the hobby room at our condo so I could get some stuff primed. I like to have lots of stuff in this state as it means if painting motivation/inspiration comes to me, I can act on it more easily.

In this batch there's my Mordaci Blaylock conversion and an AoBR tactical squad for my Novamarines, Pedro Kantor, a sternguard squad, a devastator squad, a land raider and a rhino for my Crimson Fists, finally a jump pack chaplain and my deathwatch marine for my Raptors. I also tried to undercoat a tactical squad of Raptors white, but the can was pretty empty and it eventually started getting gritty so I stopped.

What's the best thing I should do for the poorly undercoated white guys; should i just give them a brush to see if it removes the grit? strip them and start again? any other magic tips?

My final match of the XTBBF season at Dueling Grounds was against the then highest ranked Drakwald Devils, I managed to hang on for the win, giving Kolja his first loss of the season as well as maintaining my undefeated record and vaulting over him to top of the standings (with an 85% win percentage).

Next up is the Spike! (non NAF) being run within the league. Below are the rules as determined by Kolja (aka da Commish). Quarterfinal matches are scheduled for tomorrow. Even cooler is one of the local guys has written up some awesome press releases regarding the Quarterfinal matchups (here is the link to my matchup), they are really well written and better even than his press releases during the season (trust me it's worth perusing the press release section of the site - they really add some cool flavour to the league) - as top dog at the moment I'm sure everyone is gunning to take me down. I'm putting my faith in a reasonable TV of 137 and getting some inducement $$ and regeneration to cover only having 12 players. Wish me luck!

Spike! rulesThe top 8 ranked XTBBF teams (win/loss precentage) will be entered (you need to 4 games to be ranked) and seeded for the first week. Only 1 team per coach can enter! After the quarterfinals, opponents will be randomly seeded. Coaches who miss the scheduled game have until the next scheduled game to try to get it done, otherwise they forfeit. There are no ties - teams play one extra half of sudden death overtime and then go to a shootout. The Spike final can have two halves of overtime before a shootout.

The 4 teams that lose the quarterfinals are entered into the Grubby Bowl, sponsored by the Grubby Griswald's Good Eats restaurant chain. These games are not held in the nicest venues (reserved for the Spike!) and have the worst fans, officials and league oversight. Hence, both coaches get a randomly drawn special play card for each game, in addition to any normal inducements. Each coach flips a coin - if heads the coach gets a Miscellaneous Mayhem card, if tails the coach gets a Dirty Tricks card. Naturally, the prizes for the Grubby Bowl are not as impressive as the Spike. The winning team is awarded a Grubby Bowl trophy which counts as a team reroll. However, it can only be used once per game (not half) and only adds half the normal reroll cost to the team value.

Monday, January 10, 2011

I've had these old 2nd edition devastator bodies sitting around ever since my brother gave me his old stuff. I figured nobody would really be interested so I never bothered to try and trade them for something else. One day when wondering what to do with the scout heavy bolters I had sitting around - I got inspired and figured a full heavy bolter armed devastator squad would be fluffy for my Crimson Fist army - as well as use up these bits in a way that will at the least give me a unique model that likely nobody else will have. I love the reinforced leg armour - I'm sure Forge World will get around to it when they realize it's another product people will spend a ton of money on bits because it reminds them of "the good old days".

This is the dilemma I have left, should I use these weapon mount/tripod components or not? I'm leaning towards not as it makes them look like they just run around blasting away like crazy, but I would love to hear your opinion. Here's a pic with the same two models with the mounts blu-tacked on. Which do you prefer and why? I could also mount them in a "retracted" position (ie. pointing the same direction as the barrel) or a combination of the two, but it's either all tripods or no tripods. I'm planning to prime these guys tomorrow so please comment and quick!

Saturday, January 8, 2011

This is something I hadn't planned on getting yet, but ended up picking up from someone mostly complete. The trade started about something completely different, but I ended up picking up these guys and a terminator chaplain. A squad of magnetized termies! Having a bit of fun here with crazy weapon combinations. I knew immediately they should be my Space Sharks terminators with Badab camo scheme and shark's tooth trophies, since I only planned to have 2 veteran squads, one in power armour and one in terminator armour. It made sense for them to be magnetized as much of the rest of the army is. I have 3 of the Chapterhouse Studios combi-weapon magnetic kits for the other 5 power armour veterans I have to build.

There's practically every weapon option, so many I need a bunch of blank terminator pads. I've gone through and painted a different colour for each models arms. Before I prime them I will use some masking liquid to cover them up. I've found it very handy for that type of thing. Unfortunately these guys are pretty low priority on the painting list, and will definitely have to wait until I've built the other 5 hammerheads/sternguard to paint.

Friday, January 7, 2011

OK here's a nice healthy update with lots of pics - I admit the pics aren't the greatest and are just a single shot of each guy facing you so sometimes the details are hidden, but I promise once these guys are painted (not by me, similar to the Genestealers I'm going to find someone to paint my Flesh Tearers - I have too much backed up to be painted already and want them ready now!) I will take proper photos with multiple angles to really show them off. They have all had a Flesh Tearers brass etch symbol on their shoulderpads and other pieces from the fw brass etch sheet are on there as well. For their bases I have added detail on parts of the base but left the rest bare, mostly to make it easy for putting the bases on and off (oh wait did you think they weren't magnetized - hahahhaha) so I'm hoping that with the right kind of paint job, it can seem as if the area around the model is really dark & gloomy. That's the dream anyways! I even made some magnetized bases for the C.A.T. and Chalice. Comments and criticism welcome.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Here's the model that got me started into modeling proper again. It was pretty beat up when I first got it, and hadn't been put together too well to boot! My Crimson Fists are kinda the "junk pile" of my marine chapters, so this Land Raider is definitely for them. I used filler all around the top left and right edges and filed the results to fix a huge gap. I pulled out the heavy bolter and added the assault cannons and also replaced the busted up lascannons with the flamestorm cannons - should I add some kind of plate to the side of the weapon or not?

In the little inset box you can see the multi-melta cupola I scratch built. The weapon itself if an old RT era piece and I just pinned that to the targeter through the arm on the cupola itself. I left the cupola closed and added a set of handles for the weapon. I'm planning to skip the magnets for my CF vehicles but just keep the various cupola bits seperate and pop them in and out. I'm also hoping (fingers crossed) to borrow an airbrush to basecoat a bunch of CF stuff at once.

I built this guy somewhere in Nov/Dec last year. I had ordered a pack of the fw raven guard upgrade pack even though it was not built for Raptors as I knew I could use the beakies w laurels for my Space Sharks and the old style backpacks for my (planned ;-) ) Iron Knights. Since my Shrike has the RG symbol on him too I figure they won't be too out of place and I can just say it's his own personal heraldry. He does have a little mini shield on the RG shoulderpad with the same symbol as the decal I used on Shrike, which I think I will do in the camo colours and should help tie them together (to top it all the fw bolter has the same symbol.. =O )

As with all my Deathwatch marines he has a banner that attaches with a simple pin. This guy will actually be very helpful replacing tactical squad sergeants, or beefing up sternguard squads. To follow suit with the Raptors stuff I already have, I will be painting him using mostly washes. Since he will be mostly black I will probably start out priming him grey. My jump pack equipped chaplain I picked up recently will be painted in the same manner. His chapter shoulderpad is actually going to be yellow with black detail, as all my first company units will get the non-camo Raptors scheme.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Ever since the Thunderfire Cannon model came out, I knew I would never purchase it. Small complex metal models that will break easily are not for me. I knew it could be done, but it wasn't until Andy from Eagles View posted about his scratch built thunderfire cannon that I went and bought some volley gun bits from a bits site to have a go. You can tell by the date on his post that this item has been sitting in the backburner for a LOOOONG time. I built the volley gun bits and the tracks pretty quickly but the actual body was giving me problems. A recent land raider acquisition came with lots of spare bits and I had some leftover sentinel parts so when I got some inspiration I built this.

Sorry for the crappy iphone photos, I didn't bother to show the other side as it's basically identical. The only thing I see left to do is cover up the bare "axle" holes on the 2 rear most small wheels. Questions for you lot are -

Do you think it needs anything else model wise?

I was considering some ammo racks in the open space, might it be prudent to leave the space open for the techmarine to stand in so he can get a cover save?

Finally.. does anyone know if the techmarine that comes with a thunderfire cannon means you can take a squad of servitors, and if they can still be joined by him if he is operating the gun?

Monday, January 3, 2011

First "meat and potatoes" post. While waiting to get some other miniatures primed I finished modeling Durja, began painting him and then started assembling Blaylock from some spare pieces. Durja can obviously be used as a standard librarian whereas Blaylock will likely see the light of day more as himself than a simple captain with chain fist.

Mahabala Durja

This is for a Novamarines HQ entry in the Bell of Lost Souls Badab War play aid. I started putting him together a while ago, but only recently finished assembly and began to paint him. He's got a censor looking force weapon, and a storm bolter (because I think he's supposed to have one just a typo in the play aid) I've attempted sculpting some shoulderpad detail - you can see it in the inset photo - the picture is being quite generous, it doesn't look that good in person. There's a book attached to his chestplate (as in the play aid picture) and I'm going to attempt some OSL radiating from the book on him at some point since his armour is meant to be ornate and provides a 3+ invulnerable save but I used a simple AoBR terminator base - it doesn't look very special but I'm hoping some neat painting might hide that fact.

Mordaci Blaylock

New Novamarines HQ from IA9: The Badab War. I just decided to throw him together with pieces I already had - I've been on a marine assembling kick. I custom built his master crafted chain fist from a lightning claw and a chainsword. I scraped down some crossed bones on the shield leaving just the skull to finish the chapter icon around and added the piece that looks like the chapter icon as his iron halo. His nickname is "Stormbreaker" so I think I'm going to have to try some personal heraldry on his right shoulderpad. In the rules he turns your terminator squads into scoring units so I definitely wanted a model for him! I think I'm going to paint his helmet a different colour - since he's the captain of the 1st company I was thinking black with a white stripe a la Rogue Trader colours. It will make him stand out a little more since his head won't be exposed. I'd like to get a couple squads having veteran sergeants with helmets to paint them red.

As for the Novamarines, I need to sculpt a bunch of cloaks on the scouts before they will see any paint and get a land speeder storm. and some drop pods. I have a second tactical squad to paint and also have plans in the far future for a squad of assault terminators all armed with th/ss using the shield that has the chapter icon on it. If anyone wants to trade me that storm shield for one of the others please let me know!

To that end I have begun modeling and painting again in earnest. Overall I did pretty poorly last year in terms of getting stuff painted. I was well below my target (28%) and even well below my previous years result (86%). I did do some positive things like complete my Spyrers and Pit Slave gangs, as well as a large chunk of extra models for my Orc blood bowl team. I also painted a huge batch of wargs and bought a big dark elf army on the fantasy side.

In 2011 I want to continue attending Blood Bowl tournaments, get some more Necromunda games in, play more Space Hulk (both standard and travel versions), start playing 40k again, give the LOTR rules a try and most importantly get a lot of stuff painted.

I painted a few models towards the end of 2010, but that was spawned from being excited about painting marines and playing 40k again. This was all sparked by deciding to get a beat up land raider into shape to be painted. Since then I have done a lot of assembling, including the land raider, some sternguard, a deathwatch member, a devastator squad, even a scratch built thunderfire cannon! I want to get back into 40k since that's what motivated me to get new stuff painted. Not so sure about tournaments yet but am more interested in playing some fun stuff, hence I am drifting back to the Badab War.

I also aim to post much more often this year as posting here I found very motivating.

Well I had a lovely long holiday season that included a trip to BC. In the last few weeks of 2010 I got a couple more guys painted as I've kicked into hobby gear again. For the past month I've been assembling more space marine models to paint next year - and one in particular (my first land raider) forced my hand to paint a 6th member of my Crimson Fist terminators so the land raider can roll with a full squad.

He's not perfect - the eagle and other bone details didn't get the right colour wash and the white on the head isn't as clean as the rest of the squad, but from a foot away it's hard to tell so I'm classifying him as done!

I also got a couple more necromundan rats painted up. Very similar to the two I did very early in 2010. I picked up two more since I want to try running a Wyrd Coven gang using Anthony Case's rules and a beastmaster wyrd can actually gain a boost that allows him to control an extra beast. I want to get some of the other beast types this year.

This will probably be my last post for this blog. It was fun following you guys as we all attempted to paint a mini a week, but I found it difficult to keep up with posting on my own blog and my overall amount of painting seemed to diminish. I'm sure there were other factors involved but I found myself painting models I wasn't planning to use as much (not a bad thing) and my motivation for painting this year was low. In 2011 I'm going to try to focus on my own blog as posting more frequently there kept my motivation higher and tended to get more response. All the best in 2011 guys and I will be continue to follow your endeavours. I hope to play more WHFB and 40k this year so keep me in mind if you are looking for an opponent.

WIP-REVIEW: More scenery for Robotech!
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First update of this year!
I've been building the scenery sets from 4Ground I have so far:
Primera actualización del año!
He estado armando los sets de escen...